Fans fasten their seatbelts for a sartorial ride

'Gossip Girl' 100th Episode

Few shows have viewers tuning in each week to see what the main characters are wearing — “Mad Men” and “Sex and the City” come to mind — but since 2007, “Gossip Girl” has been setting trends for teens and twentysomethings with the highest of haute couture.

In the skein’s 100th episode, “Gossip” hosts a royal wedding with the bride, Blair, wearing a custom-fitted Vera Wang lace gown.

Costume designer Eric Daman says of Leighton Meester, who plays Blair, “When she put the veil on the whole thing, I kind of got shivers.”

Blair’s regal style often crosses into the theatrical — “I love it when Blair gets dramatic and she wears veils,” Meester says — but the look for Blake Lively’s Serena is “nonchalant,” Daman says.

“She just rolls out of bed and puts on something and looks amazing,” he adds. “But it actually takes hours and hours to find those outfits.”

Two of Daman’s favorite looks came about, not surprisingly, when “Gossip” spent two episodes in Paris. Serena was edgy with a touch of masculinity in a peach crystal dress, a grey blazer and a straw boater hat, while ever-dissimilar Blair donned a feminine, multi-colored, cherry print dress and a blue beret.

Blair and Serena might be fictional, but their tangible styles have real-world bloggers documenting every ensemble. They have also inspired a clothing line by Romeo & Juliet Couture. The line will continue in 2012 with spring and fall collections, says Sonia Borris, senior VP of marketing and operations for Warner Bros. worldwide television marketing.

Borris says collaborating with Romeo & Juliet Couture on the “Gossip Girl” line felt authentic, important to a show in which “fashion in general is an additional character.”

Some “Gossip Girl” ensembles have been racy enough to inspire criticism, but Daman asserts that the intent wasn’t gratuitous.

“We weren’t trying to see as much cleavage as we can without getting an X rating on television,” Daman says. “It was really about where Serena was at the time.

“When women grow up, they want to explore their sexuality. We were just lucky enough to do it in Herve Leger dresses.”